Bogota to present Shanghai Award, a first for South America

The third Global Award for Sustainable Development in Cities, or the Shanghai Award, will be presented in South America for the first time in Bogota, Colombia, on World Cities Day on Oct 31.

The award recognizes world cities for their achievements and innovations while implementing the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the New Urban Agenda, Liu Qianwei, chief engineer with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing, Urban-rural Development and Management, said at a news briefing on Monday.

The award, jointly presented by the UN Human Settlements Programme, or UN-Habitat, and the Shanghai government, considers a variety of criteria — including economic vitality, urban prosperity, ecological construction, green development, urban safety, resilience development and capacity building for sustainable development — in determining a winner.

Agadir in Morocco, Thiruvananthapuram in India, Doha in Qatar, Iztapalapa in Mexico, and Melbourne in Australia won last year's award. Brisbane in Australia, Fuzhou in China, George Town in Malaysia, Kampala in Uganda and Salvador in Brazil won the inaugural award in 2023.

"Last year marked the first time that the Shanghai Award was presented abroad, with the ceremony held in Egypt, Africa," said Liu. "This year, it will be awarded in South America for the first time, a move that will further expand the global influence of China's experiences in urban sustainable development and demonstrate the ongoing collaboration and leadership between China and the UN in this field."